


had we but world enough and time

by corleones



Category: The Hour
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-26
Updated: 2011-12-26
Packaged: 2017-10-28 04:22:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/303683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corleones/pseuds/corleones
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rio is an assignment, not a vacation. For that, she is glad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	had we but world enough and time

She signs her articles "George Rowley" which was her grandfather's name and that's the name the checks are addressed to when they arrive at the same apartment in Clapham that she swore she'd be out of in five year's time (it has now been six) but the numbers are bigger this year than they have ever been before so she decides it would be churlish to wallow.

Rio is an assignment, not a vacation. For that, she is glad.

-

Her first thought on spotting Marnie in the hotel is that Hector will be here somewhere, Hector will be in this city, somewhere in this place and she will have to see him and smile and keep her lips tight and close and pretend that she is happy. She will have to shake their hands. She will have to ask after the children.

"Hello, Marnie," she chirps and something about the way, the girl responds (woman now) with a quick, light smile and warm shake of the hand tells her what has not yet been said.

There is no Hector. There are no children.

(She finds she is relieved.)

-

"So, what brings you to Rio, Marnie?" she asks, over gin and tonics at the hotel bar, cracking a peanut open against the smooth polished surface and snapping it into her mouth.

Marnie lowers her eyes, her palms pressed to her knees. Her skirt has ridden up a bit, where they sit on stools. She is awkward as if she is not used to posture but wishes to keep up does not pull her skirt down at the hem. Bel can see the tops of her stockings.

"I thought I need a break," she says and her voice floats, Bel has forgotten how lovely her voice was, sweet and chiming like a song, "From the city and all -- "

"Quite a distance to come for a break."

There's a smile.

"Father has businesses in the area. He thought the distance from London would do me good."

"Oh."

Later, when there are three drinks each in both of them and they are walking towards the elevator to go to their rooms, Marnie will reach out and grab her hand.

"It is very different here, is it not, Miss Rowley? Not tight - not trapped like London."

Bel laughs, lowers her face towards her to share the sound. "You sound like a princess escaped from her tower."

She sighs, leans against the wall, her mouth opening wider as she feels the cold surface against her hot, bare back where the dress cuts low.

"I feel a bit like that sometimes," she says and shuts her eyes and Bel wonders for a moment, what it would be like to kiss her and then elevator rings and they are both upright and sober.

-

She wears trousers now, like Lix Storm, a serious reporter and she smokes cigarettes in little rooms with men who have secrets and all her affairs are more discreet now, more controlled.

She learns from her mistakes. This makes her a better reporter, she decides, than any man will ever be.

-

They become friends. There is no other word for it, the companionship they share, the way they sit in each other's hotel rooms till late hours of night sharing stories of boarding schools and stupid men and even Hector, now.

"He was probably a better lover than a husband," Marnie admits, a bottle held up to her mouth.

"I imagine so."

"But I've never had a lover, so I don't suppose I'd know," she says, suddenly prim, putting down the bottle and straightening her bodice.

"Never? Not one?"

"Only Hector."

Bel is stern.

"A husband. Is not the same thing. A husband is not the same thing at all."

-

She decides to cut her hair. Complete the look.

Marnie does it for her, a pair of dull scissors and they are both a little drunk and it is night but the sun is not far off. She is sitting in front of a mirror and stares at Marnie's face when she is done, with strange child like wonder at the planes of her long, little face and how lovely she is in the moonlight.

"Thank you," she whispers.

-

In the end, it only happens once, after a party at the British consulate, they share a cab back home and after, the two of them retire to Bel's room and Marnie in her drunken state cannot undress so Bel fiddles with the clasps of her dress and the length of her stockings and her hand brushes up between her legs. For a horrified moment, they are both still and then there are the apologies, a strangled sound but Marnie moans and presses her closer still and that is how it happens.

Or maybe that's how it happens, she can't remember. Maybe it never happened at all.

-

They exchange addresses on departure. Marnie leaves first.

"I'll write," she promises, kissing her cheek.

Bel only nods, savours the sweet smell of perfumed throats and pretends that she believes her.

-

In London, at the airport, there is no one to pick her up.

She takes a taxi back to the apartment and the long streets of the place, the tall buildings and grey pavements seem to morph into an iron cage.

If she shuts her eyes, she is not trapped yet.


End file.
